Shirt



Feb. 15, 1944. LESSER 7 2,341,797

SHIRT Filed Oct. 11, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR I 4 ATTORNEYS 5 Feb. 15, 1944.

M. EESSER SHIRT Filed Oct. 11, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 WITNESSES Patented Feb. 15, 1944 snm'r Murray Lesser, Brooklyn, N. Y-, assignor to Free- Eor-All I nc New York, N. Y., a corporation of Delaware Application October 11, 1940, Serial No. 360,698 2 Claims. (01. 2-115) This invention relates to wearing apparel and particularly to shirts, especially mens sport shirts, an object being to provide a construction which is pleasing in appearance and one which will permit freedom of movement of the body and arms at all times without injury to the shirt.

Another object of the invention is to provide a shirt which may have either long or short sleeves formed from either a single blank or a double blank of textile fabric.

An additional object of the invention is to provide a sport shirt having a front opening and either with or without a collar, formed from a single piece of fabric with'a single seam on each side which extends from the bottom of the shirt body upwardly to the arms and along the under surface of the armsto the outer ends thereof.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a shirt which may have a front opening or which may be closed at the front and formed with an expansion fold at the rear, with either long or short sleeves, the shirt being formed of a minimum number of parts and without seams at the shoulders.

Certain features of the shirt herein shown and/or described but not claimed are shown, described and claimed in my copending application Serial No. 411,653, for Garments, filed September 20, 1941, which said application is a continuation-in-part of the present application.

In the accompanying drawings- Fig. 1 is a front view of a shirt disclosing an embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 2 is a rear View of the shirt shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the blank of the body shown in Fig. 1; I

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 2 but an expansion fold at the rear;

Fig. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary view through Fig. 4 approximately on the line 55;

Fig. 6 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view through Fig. 4 on the line 66;

Fig. 7 is a transverse sectional view through Fig. 4 on the line 'l1, the same being on an enlarged scale;

Fig. 8 is a view similar to Fig. 4 but showing a slightly modified construction wherein long sleeves are provided;

Fig. 9 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view through Fig. 8 on the line 9-9;

Fig. 10 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view through Fig. 8 on the line lfl-JIL Referring to the accompanying drawings by showing .the front and back will be of substantially the same width. As illustrated in Fig. 1, suitable buttons and buttonholes 8 are used for disengageably connecting the overlapped portions of the shirt together, but it will be evident that.

other fastening means, as for instance, hooks and eyes or snap fasteners, may be used without departing from the spirit of the invention. Also the sleeves 4 and 5 are shown as short sleeves. but if desired, they could be made full length and also may be provided with cuffs. The collar 9 is made in the conventional Way of collars and is stitched in place at the neck opening "I in any desired manner. Also, as shown in Fig. 1, patch pockets iii and H are provided.

It will be observed that when the blank is folded along the line I2, the edges of the front and rear portions of the garment will be together and, consequently, the respectiv seams I3 and i4 may be applied. These seams extend from the bottom of the shirt body to the arms and then along the arms to the outer end thereof. One seam on each side, therefore, completes the shirt except for the pockets, collar, buttons 8, and the finishing strip l5 at the overlapped portion of the front. In the blank shown in Fig. 3, each sleeve member is provided with inclined edge end portions 16 and I1 so that the parts will appear as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 when stitched together. Also preferably the edge portions I6 and I! are turned in and held in place by 'a line of stitching I8. This presents an inner hem, though an outer hem could be used if desired.

In forming the blank, it will be observed that both the front and the back are curved inwardly at the respective zones I9, 20, 2| and 22 so as to give a desired fit to the garment without producing any undesirable constriction or bunching action. Also it will be observed that there are no seams on top of the shoulders and, consequently, the zones 23 and 24 permit greater freedom in the use of the arms when playing golf or when on the athletic field.

The shirt disclosed in the present invention has been especially designed to be made in connection with standard shirts. When standard shirts are laid out on the same strip of goods as the shirt embodying the present invention a saving of material will result as the waste or unused parts left from the blank shown in Fig. 3 can readily be utilized for the collar 9 and also for parts of a standard shirt. When only standard shirts are cut from a single piece of fabric there is a specific waste, but when standard shirts and shirts of the present invention are laid out on a sheet of fabric a saving is provided, in many instances up to seventeen per cent over the layout of either shirt alone.- Therefore, in designing the present shirt this saving of material has been taken into consideration and the curved portions or zones 20 to 22 inclusive have been provided and the other shapes designed to secure this result, as well as to present a very pleasing and extremely comfortable shirt.

In Figs. 4 to 7, inclusive, a slightly modified structure is presented wherein the front and back are of the same width in the pattern, whereby the front may be overlapped as indicated at 25 in Fig. 7. This overlapped structure is identical with that shown in Fig. 1 and is illustrated with buttons and buttonholes for additionally engaging and connecting the overlapped portions together. I-llowever, it will be understood that other disengageable fasteners may be used without departing from the spirit of the invention, as for instance, hooks and eyes and slide fasteners. The one-piece structure shown in Figs. 4 to 7, inclusive, has a front of two sections of fabric and a back of one section of fabric and the parts are connected together by seams l4 and I5. However, the rear is made slightly different from that shown in Fig. 2, namely, with a fold 2b. This fold is left open at the zone 21, but at the zones 28 and 29 it is closed and held closed by a 1ine of stitching 30. A triangular tacking bar 3! and a straight bar 32 are arranged at the lower end whereby a pleasing appearance is presented and yet the back is allowed to expand and contract when the shirt is in use.

In Figs. 8 to 10, inclusive, a further modified form of the same inventive concept is disclosed and in this form of the invention long sleeves 23 and 24 are provided. In order to secure thi result and have the same general design as shown in Figs. 1 to 4 and, at the same time, use a minimum amount of fabric, the body of the garment i made of two sections. The section 33 at the front and rear of the body and the sleeve 24' are in one piece and the section 34 at the front and rear and the sleeve 23' are in one piece. At the front the garment is connected together by an overlapping structure, as shown in Fig. 1, by the use of buttons, slide fasteners or other means, while at the rear a seam 35 is provided and an expansion fold 36 is arranged to extend from near the neck opening to a point appreciably below the arm openings. In producing this seam 35 and the fold 36, the parts are arranged as shown in Figs. 9 and 10. The front and rear portions of the body are of the same width and at the front they overlap as shown in Fig. 1 and at the rear a folded structure 31 is provided. This-folded structure is connected together by an interior seam 35 and exterior of this scam but interior of the opening 36 there is provided a covering strip 38 held in place by seams 39 and 40. By reason of this arrangement the parts are normally held as shown in Fig. 8, but when any strainis brought to bear on the garment the zone 36 will open-up and therefore permit easy movement of the person wearing the garment. As shown in Fig. 10, the seam 35 closes the garment from the bar 32 downward to the bottom of the garment and from the triangle 3| to the top thereof. It will be understood that the folded structure just described and shown in Figs. 9' and 10 is arranged interiorly of the garment so that all that is seen exteriorly thereof is the expansion zone 36 and this expansion zone is normally closed but will open when any strain is brought to bear. scribed, the structure is the same as shown in Fig. 1 and functions in the same way to provide a very desirable garment wherein freedom of the body may be had when playing golf or on the athletic field. In addition to these desirable features the garment always presents a pleasing appearance and automatically resumes its proper fit when the strain is relieved.

I claim:

1. A shirt having a back including two sections joined by a vertical seam, said sections each having a flat pleat terminating at said seam, said pleats being disposed interiorly of said shirt and with the pleat fold lines remote from said seam and each other, said pleats being joined to said sections by fold lines which are adjacently disposed and face each other, said second named fold lines lying substantially in registration with said seam, portions of said second named fold lines being joined to each other and portions of said second named fold lines being left unattached to provide an expansion zone in said shirt back, and a covering strip disposed in said pleats and extending fromvadjacent one of the first named fold lines to adjacent the other of said first named fold lines, said covering strip lying beneath the unattached portions of said second named fold lines.

2. A shirt as set forth in claim 1 wherein the covering strip is held in position by stitching running parallel to the vertical seam and joining said covering strip and portions of the pleats adjacent the .pleat folds.

. MURRAY LESSER.

Asid from the specific parts just de- 

